Competition has important implications for the 20 million workers in Canada today. Competitive labour markets lead to higher wages, better working conditions, benefits, and other non-monetary forms of compensation. In competitive labour markets, workers have options for where to work. When workers feel they are not being compensated or treated fairly, they can seek out a new job. But when labour markets are not competitive, workers have no other option but to accept substandard employment.
Despite how important competition is to working people in Canada, the Competition Bureau, Canada’s competition law enforcement agency, does not do enough to enforce the law to the benefit of workers. To date, we find no evidence to suggest that the Competition Bureau has ever considered the impact of mergers or other potentially harmful business behaviours on workers. While other countries are taking steps to do more to promote competition in labour markets, our Competition Bureau is falling behind.
CAMP is tackling the issue of competition in labour markets by educating the public and worker advocates, advocating for the Competition Bureau to create guidelines specifically for enforcing our competition laws to protect and support workers, and ensuring that Canada’s competition law respects the role of workers in Canada’s economy.
